The Castle of Otranto

The Castle of Otranto,horror tale by Horace Walpole, published in 1765. The work is considered the first Gothic novel in the English language; its supernatural happenings and mysterious ambiance were widely emulated in the genre.

Manfred is the tyrannical usurper of the princedom of Otranto. On the day his son Conrad is to marry Isabella, daughter of the marquis of Vicenza, Conrad is found dead in the courtyard, crushed by a mammoth plumed helmet. Manfred decides to divorce his wife and marry Isabella in order to produce the heir he needs to retain control of the realm, but Isabella escapes to Father Jerome with the help of Theodore, a handsome young peasant. From a birthmark on Theodore’s neck, Father Jerome discovers that the young man is really his natural son, born before he entered the priesthood, when he was the prince of Falconara. Later, the giant form of the martyred rightful prince Alfonso appears, proclaiming Theodore’s right of succession, and then ascends to heaven. Manfred and his wife enter separate convents. Theodore marries Isabella and rules Otranto as prince.

Click anywhere inside the article to add text or insert superscripts, subscripts, and special characters.
You can also highlight a section and use the tools in this bar to modify existing content:

Add links to related Britannica articles!
You can double-click any word or highlight a word or phrase in the text below and then select an article from the search box.
Or, simply highlight a word or phrase in the article, then enter the article name or term you'd like to link to in the search box below, and select from the list of results.

Note: we do not allow links to external resources in editor.
Please click the Web sites link for this article to add citations for
external Web sites.